Halloween Heroes
by lms2457
Summary: The Castle family gets ready for a belated Halloween party. A Halloween Bash Entry 2018


**Halloween Heroes**

 **Disclaimer** ** _:_** I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **AN** : Canon based Future Fic. A Castle Halloween Bash entry.

* * *

It was Friday night and the rest of the world has moved on into November, but he's wrestling the boys into their costumes. Castle got it, he was not new this whole Dad thing, and having a kids Halloween party on a Wednesday is just asking for trouble. Midweek sugar rushes are asking for a whole lot of trouble for kids and parents both. Still, the inner Halloween junkie in him feels a little weird. Like he was two days late to the party, and everyone else is halfway to Christmas. And that was mostly because it's true, but still, he couldn't help but be a little bit excited. This year was special for more reasons than just the delayed gratification.

Oh they decorate every year, he wouldn't let them get away without doing it, even if it does make Beckett roll her eyes at his predictable excitement. And they have taken the kids trick-or-treating since he had to carry Lily from door to door of their building. But this year the boys were old enough to be in on the whole thing. They were all in on the excitement as a family, for really the first time. And the thought of that gave him a rush of his own.

Kate was getting Lily ready, and as he corrals Jake and Reece, he wonders why his littlest girl was so insistent on splitting up the boys and the girls to get their costumes on. The seven year old seemed to have her mom's backing on the plan, and he thinks his girls might be up to something. Still, it's left him wrangling two three year old boys who want to get going.

"Guys, come on the girls are going to be here any minute, don't you want to surprise them? We have to be ready."

"Yes! Ready, Daddy!" Jake hops around in front of him, arms out in his Peter Pan costume. "Let's fly!"

"Okay," he laughed, kneeling down so he's eye level with the boys, though it's harder in the white tux then he'd like it to be. "Reece, my man, can you see in there?"

The boy nods vigorously, then giggles, dancing about like his brother.

Apparently, he wasn't talking, already in character. Okay then.

Castle straightened as he heard Lily's chattering voice make its way down the hall.

"Here we are Daddy!"

Castle turned towards his daughter and pauses. Save for a red bow in her hair and a little reddening in her cheeks courtesy of her mother's lipstick, his kid looks pretty normal. "I can see that - Matilda?"

Lily put hand on her hip. "Daddy, no!" She holds out her props in her other hand. A book, he sees, and that magnifying glass Beckett got him, the year of his epic surprise birthday murder mystery. "I'm Claire, from The Haunted Library books," she huffs, clearly a little put out that he hasn't caught on right away.

"I don't know that one, Lily, what's it?" Jake asked, slurring the last three words together like they're his sister's name.

"It's a series about a girl who can talk to ghosts, and she has a ghost best friend named Kaz. They want to run a ghost Detective agency. And they have a ghost friend and his name is Beckett."

Castle bit back a grin. His daughter has filigreed the last of her summary as if it's both a big secret and the punchline to a joke, and it must land because Jake laughs like it's the best he's ever heard. And yeah, it is pretty perfect when she puts it like that. He looks down at Reece, who has his hand over his mouth, smothering his own giggles.

"It will work better when the Ryan's get here, Nicholas is going as Kaz, so she'll have her best ghost with her," his wife offered as she comes through the door to the boys room herself.

"Is Nick'las being a ghostie cause he's your bestest friend, Lily?" Jake asks.

"Yep. Now where's yours?" Lily asked back with a frown, looking around for her other little brother.

Reece popped out from behind his brother as if on queue, arms raised above his head in a little "ta-da" gesture. His costume a copy of his brothers, but every inch of him covered in black fabric.

"Wow, very impressive boys. Kate moves in to wrap the boys in a hug. "How'd you settle on who got to be the shadow?" Kate asked, turning her eyes to his. And yes, Castle knows Reece is their shy, quite kid, and he gets the psychology of putting him literally in his brother's shadow too, but.

"Reece lobbied for it, actually. He thinks the morph suit gives him super stealthy powers," he informed his wife.

Kate scooped Reece up from the floor, trying, Castle assumed, to find her little boy's eyes through the suit. "Is that true?" She asked.

Reece nodded, then threw his hands up again and wiggled.

"Plus, you still get to fly, huh?" She asked, interpreting.

He nodded.

"Is it hot?" She asked as she dropped him back on his feet.

He shook his head.

"Itchy?"

Another head shake.

"Can you see?"

"Already covered that one." Castle put in. "We're good, Mommy."

She bit her lip, "Yes, I can see Daddy picked great costumes with you guys. "Where's your costume, Mommy?" Jake piped up.

She looked at her son with a slight frown. "Don't you like it?"

Jake frowned right back, looking his mother up and down, clearly puzzled. "Oh, yes, Mommy. But..."

She looked even more normal than Lily did. He raise an eyebrow at her. "You've already tried the rigged non costume thing on me, Beckett," he says, eyeing her trench coat with suspicion.

"Not my costume, Mr. Bond," she says back, one eyebrow raised in challenge.

"Then..." he trails off.

Lily, twisted and fidgeted, and Castle guessed she was holding in whatever the secret was with great difficulty.

"We are supposed to be characters from our favorite books, right?" His wife looks suddenly shy.

"Mommy picked your books, Daddy," Lily announced.

Oh. Oh wow, he told her to dress up as her favorite literary character and she - she picked Nikki Heat. He stared at her, struck speechless.

"It's not cheating if I mean it," she said.

He swallowed hard and shook his head. "No, no. It's perfect." He stepped into her in two wick strides and kissed her. They broke apart to a chorus of giggles and ewws and the doorbell downstairs that he thought was either his mother and oldest daughter, or the Ryans. But he's slow to move, letting the kids go down ahead of them, because she got him good.

Beckett grinned at him, pleased with herself and her surprise. "Happy Halloween, Castle."


End file.
